Nixon Administration, Watergate, and Corruption

Following Richard M. Nixon’s re-election in 1972, his second administration became embroiled in corruption, scandal, and a constitutional crisis arising from the Watergate burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters.  Nixon’s abuse of executive power entailed undermining the Special Prosecutor’s investigation of Watergate, firing Justice Department officers in the “Midnight Massacre,” attacking the free press, targeting political foes—his infamous enemies’ list—and engaging in illegal campaign finance activities.  Doyle was riveted by the televised Watergate hearings and  the investigative journalism of Washington Post reporters Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein.  The revelation of the “smoking gun” White House tapes that exposed wholesale  political corruption,  cover-ups, and “dirty tricks” associated with the Nixon legacy became easy fodder for Doyle’s drawing pen. 

Nixon Crossing the Potomac

(Watergate/Executive Privilege)

 

No Amnesty for this POW Either

(Watergate/Executive Privilege)

Not Wallowing, But Walking

(Watergate/Missing Tapes)

Nixon’s Fantasy Land

Odor? What Odor?

(Nixon Administration and ITT Scandal)

He Followed Me Home

The Party of Lincoln

(Watergate and Dirty Tricks)

William Vare – Last of the Philadelphia Contract Bosses (1933)

One of Jerry Doyle’s most critical editorial cartoons took aim at Philadelphia political machine boss William Vare.  From the late 1890s to the 1930s, Philadelphia’s notorious “contract bosses” dominated municipal politics, rigged elections, and reaped enormous profits from graft and corruption.  Their power stemmed from their extensive network and control of municipal services, utilities, public transportation, and building and construction projects.  Here, drawing upon the muckraking tradition, Doyle appropriated the symbol of octopus tentacles to expose Vare’s corruption.